Demystifying the developmental & behavioral challenges of children

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Tag Archives: education reform

It is refreshing to see that schools are now recognizing that zero tolerance and negative responses to all actions does not allow the student to develop a sense or mastery over their own behaviors. Students need to know that they are meeting expectations, not to just assume that if they are not being criticized or punished they are doing what the teacher or principal wants.

As a society we need to remember that children and teens don’t have all the answers. They need to hear often that they are making progress and developing mastery skills. They are not choosing to do it wrong or to make things worse. They need us to help them learn the steps to success.

Researchers in Montgomery County, Md., have identified warning signals, such as poor grades or a high number of absences, that can flag students as early as 1st grade who are likely to drop out later.

Dr. Pat McGuire‘s insight:

This could be the start of a means of getting ahead of the fallouts. As schools can be able to identify the at risk students, they can begin to change how they work with them, that targets the skills they need to close their gaps (language, academic, behavioral) so that they will become a statistic of success rather than a statistic of loss.

This is one of the main reasons why I speak around the country about understanding and working with children experiencing developmental and behavioral challenges. As schools can understand and develop effective methods of intervention before the gap widens, all children will learn better.

As Americans we have always been taught that one of the greatest things about living in this country is that we are protected by the First Amendment in the United States Constitution.

Dr. Pat McGuire‘s insight:

This is an important opinion piece to read. Teachers have so much to share about why we are having struggling students, stressed students, and out of control students. What can we do to listen to and help these teachers?

A small change tucked inside a government spending bill this month may have big implications for special education.

Dr. Pat McGuire‘s insight:

This article is important for 2 reasons. 1 – It shows that the federal government won’t allow children with special needs to be the ones who suffer when there are economic problems, 2 – This rewrite also allows those states who are keeping their focus on helping children with special needs can get extra funds if they become available. It doesn’t just sit in the coffers. I feel that the administration has been an advocate for children with special needs with this effort.

I started watching Undercover Boss a few weeks ago and one thing showed up repeatedly. The bosses were not seen as being capable of doing the work that they hired others to do. One major reason that I could see was that the training time was too short for most people to do the jobs being demanded of them after just an hour or so of training, if that. These were jobs that all required rapid response time, multitasking skills, and flexibility in thinking. But guess what, these were not managerial jobs, but rather the blue collar jobs that many people feel “anyone can do” and because of that “are not all that economically worthy”. The bosses came away with a new appreciation of the demands on their workers and a greater respect for them.

Now in the series, changes are made to help the people who worked with the boss as well as some improvements to the company itself. But what I didn’t actually hear much of, was how to make sure that more people could actually learn to master these jobs.

One in 6 individuals has some sort of learning problem. These problems don’t just affect academics, but all learning, from how to clean up a bedroom, to doing a line job. These individuals end up on unemployment or needing handouts more frequently because we are not recognizing and putting into place adequate training resources so that when they get the job, they are able to do it to the level management requires.

Change needs to occur early in the lives of these individuals. Schools focus on academics, but they don’t provide needed real life training too, which is needed by most of our students. There is a need to look at educational reform not just from how to get more academics into students, but how to help them develop lifelong skills for many potential jobs. Higher education is getting harder to afford and a BA doesn’t take you very far any more. This is one of the many reasons that for profit schools are doing so well. They train in specific skills for specific jobs in a practical, hands-on approach. Some community colleges are also trying to fill this void. But for the students who have academic problems, they may not qualify for these programs. We need to reconsider educational tracks for students who don’t plan on going to college but need skills that are usable upon graduation from high school.

As a society, we need to make sure that our tax dollars are paying for an education that is useful to all, not just those who are college – and graduate school – bound.